Nowadays politic in general is faced with two problematic tendencies of development. On the one hand there is an increasing disenchantment with politics and also a declining preparedness of citizens to get involved with policy making processes. A sure indicator for this trend is the low turnout at elections and the decreasing party memberships. On the other hand the public administration uses almost exclusively obsolete technologies to communicate with the citizens. Against the background of the age of the Internet and the desire of the people to coordinate their activities online, the government should not be closed to this new form of information and communication technologies (ICT).<\/p>\n
\u201cE-government\u201d projects are a possible solution to remedy these tendencies, which can redesign the administrative processes between government and citizens with the help of ICT. A particular form of the e-government is the \u201ce-participation\u201d, which is a web-based method to allow the participation of the citizens in the policy making process and enables to encrust the structural top-down rigidities and creates finally a transparent and collaborative politic system.<\/p>\n
This paper focuses on the question whether this electronic form of participation is adapted for the general public in the context of the Internet consumption and interest in politics. First of all we need a basic understanding of the \u201ce-participation\u201d including its forms and tools. After that, the potentials and risks of \u201ce- participation\u201d are discussed under the regard of the Internet consumption and interest in politics. To show an implementation of this concept, relevant \u201ce-participation\u201d initiatives of the European Union are analyzed to identify the challenges and make improvement suggestions.<\/p>\n
Lisa Klug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nowadays politic in general is faced with two problematic tendencies of development. On the one hand there is an increasing disenchantment with politics and also a declining preparedness of citizens to get involved with policy making processes. A sure indicator for this trend is the low turnout at elections and the decreasing party memberships. On … Continue reading E-Participation<\/span>